Through the context of a movie year that had most of its post-March theatrical releases canceled, the number of great movies that actually came out this year was surprisingly plentiful. Have we finally reached the point when, even if almost an entire year of theatrical moviegoing gets thrown out of the window, we could still find a bountiful amount of quality films via streaming platforms? I believe we’ve reached that point.
With most theaters closed, we had to settle with watching movies in the comfort of our own homes. Release dates for potential blockbusters such as “Dune,” and “West Side Story,” were pushed back to 2021, but in no way did that leave us with no movies. If we had gone through the COVID-19 pandemic, say, even just 10 years ago, then a list such as the one below may not have been conceivably possible. technology has allowed us access to watch anything we want.
In all, I saw 120 new movies this year, an astounding number, all things considered, and although there was no “Uncut Gems,” “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” or “The Irishman,” the good stuff came in smaller packages, dished out via independent studios who, in the midst of endless lockdowns, managed to find a lifeline between audience and cinema. Want proof? Here’s my list of the 10 best movies of 2020.
1. ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ (Eliza Hittman)
Eliza Hittman is a filmmaker who shows rather than tells. That’s just her style. It might isolate viewers expecting to be told how to think about a movie, but for the rest of us, the gifted writer-director did good on the promise of her 2017 indie, “Beach Rats”, by delivering a masterpiece in 2020. The 41-year-old Flatbush, NY native gave us “Never Rarely Sometimes, Always.” In the film, Hittman means to show us the aches of being a teenage girl today: the joys, the pain, the heartbreak, and, most of all, the vulnerability. Eighteen-year-old Philly native, Autumn (astounding acting debut by Sidney Flanigan), finds out that she is 10 weeks pregnant and that the only way to get a legal abortion, without her parents knowing, is to hop on a greyhound bus and go to a New York clinic. She brings along her cousin Skylar (Talia Rider) for moral support, but as the procedure starts to take longer than expected, trouble ensues when they start to run out of cash. Hittman’s insistence to slowly but surely build up the drama as her movie goes along is a wise decision. Though highly topical and one of the best movies I’ve seen about abortion, the success of the film ultimately lies in the friendship between Autumn and Skylar. Although they rarely verbally articulate anything they’re experiencing, the bond they share is the beating heart of this exceptional movie.
2. ‘Lovers Rock’ (Steve McQueen)
One of the highlights of this year’s New York Film Festival was watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology, “Small Axe.” NYFF chose three of the five films featured in the BBC series: “Lovers Rock,” “Mangrove” and “Red, White, and Blue.” The first two were chosen for competition at Cannes 2020 before the festival had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The best of the three, “Lover’s Rock,” was a formally bold 70-minute dance party. McQueen used his camera in unique & original ways. Some moments in this movie feel damn-near transcendent in the way they used moving bodies, music & photography to immerse the viewer in moments of pure ecstasy. The debate has raged on as to whether or not this film, and the whole anthology itself, should be deemed “cinema” instead of TV (it premiered on the BBC in the U.K. and Amazon Prime in the U.S). However, one look at “Lovers Rock,” and there is no doubt in my mind that the poetic transcendence being shown onscreen is nothing short of cinematic.
3. ‘Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets’ (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross)
“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” has filmmaking duo Bill and Turner Ross tackling the final day at Roaring 20s, a dive bar in Vegas, before it closes its doors for good at 4:00 in the morning. Its regulars, a cross-section of American life, are an assortment of characters that make this doc one of the most fascinating of the entire festival. Despite their flaws, they exude empathy, stumbling, and slurring their speeches as the clock inches towards closing time. The fact that these sad-sack losers of life have a reality they’re escaping from, makes “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” a kind of mosaic of disillusionment. What will they do once the bar they call home closes down for good? The feeling and comfort of community are all over this film; these individuals visit the bar daily to shelter themselves from the outside world, but the shelter is about to close — maybe they will use it as another chance at life, but we’re not too confident they will.
4. ‘Da 5 Bloods’ (Spike Lee)
I’m as surprised to see this one on here as you are. I’m still kicking myself for writing a negative review of Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” back in June. The film’s release, incredibly well-timed, came post-mortem after the U.S. went through close to two weeks of protests and riots due to the murder of George Floyd. The timing, you might say, couldn’t be more appropriate; after all, Lee, always the political firecracker, infused his latest film with snap-a-minute political undertones. The contrarian went into the film ready to shoot it down (Lee has been on a bit of a rough streak these last 20 years). Rewatching it this past week has given form for a total reevaluation of Lee’s 24th feature-film. Instead of pointing out the flaws, I embraced them, just like I did with many of his great movies in the ’80s and ’90s. With Lee, you have to accept that any of his films won’t be perfect — there’s a messy passion that comes in all of them, including this one. In ‘Bloods,’ which clocks in at an epic 2 hours and 40 minutes, he splatters the screen with ambition as four emotionally damaged African-American vets return to Vietnam to recover the body of their fallen brother and to dig up the gold bars they buried during combat back in the day. Delroy Lindo is superb here as the MAGA-hat wearing ‘Blood,’ who seems to be partly-inspired and partly-hommaged by Humphrey Bogart’s Dobbs in “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
5. ‘First Cow’ (Kelly Reichardt)
“First Cow” is very much a Kelly Reichardt movie. That will be the deciding factor as to whether or not you want to give this movie a shot. Reichardt, Bless her maverick heart, is one of the great American filmmakers of the last ten years, what with a track record that speaks for itself (“Wendy and Lucy,” “Meek’s Cutoff,” “Certain Woman”) and a contemplative, minimalist and distinctive style that is meant to put off the Netflix crowd. With “First Cow,” Reichardt is returning to the old West of ‘Meek,’ by loosely, very loosely, adapting Jonathan Raymond’s novel “This Half-Life.” The meaty part of the film is its hour-long midsection, which plays like a masterful short story. A former cook (a soft-spoken turn from John Magaro) travels to the Western Oregon frontier to join fur trappers. Lonely, isolated, and without much connection with the men around him, he ends up connecting with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) being chased by Russians for murder. A wealthy British landowner’s (Toby Jones) prized milking cow has the two men sneaking to the millionaire’s house at night, milking the cow, cooking their own buttermilk cookies at home, and setting up shop at the market. The dessert treats are a hit.
6. ‘The Invisible Man’ (Leigh Whannell)
In Leigh Whannell’s “The Invisible Man,” Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) is victimized by her narcissist sociopathic husband, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), even after his apparent death. It all amounts to a metaphorically-driven B-movie filled with Cronenberg-ian dread throughout its overlong 124-minute runtime, but the most ingenious aspect of the film is how Whannell manages to tell the story of a victim nobody wants to believe. Of course, the more “The Invisible Man” goes along, the more ludicrous its concept becomes, as it owes its debt to the famous H.G. Wells tale of a power-mad scientist who invents an invisibility cloak to creep. Despite the on-paper silliness, Whannell and Moss make a formidable team. The latter, best known for her TV roles in “Mad Men” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” shows impressive trust in the material at hand and delivers the best movie performance of her career. Taking full advantage of the emotional wreck her Cecilia has become, Moss plays it very real, never once hinting that we are in genre territory. In that regard, Moss’s performance very much belongs in the same realm as Toni Collette’s work in “Hereditary,” acting which transcends genre barriers and reveals a humanist experience.
7. ‘Bad Education’ (Corey Finley)
“Bad Education” is based on the true story of a Long Island school superintendent (Hugh Jackman), his “assistant superintendent for business” (Allison Janney) and the embezzlement scheme they concocted as they stole millions of dollars from school funds. All of this happened under the watch of a clueless school board. Jackman and Janney are the perfect match to carry “Bad Education” forward, both delivering darkly comedic performances. In fact, this could very well be a career peak for Jackman, an Aussie actor who has had plenty of commercial hits in his career but has not always had his talents taken seriously by critics. His Frank is a man who can be liable one second and repugnant the next. The unadorned greed on display is nothing new for Finley, who tackled similar themes in his debut feature “Thoroughbreds”, but unlike that movie, the characters here feel richer and more humane. Count this as another taut, tense, and terrific drama from Finley. He’s made another scathing indictment on the way money can corrupt and darken the soul.
8. ‘Young Ahmed’ (Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne)
The Dardennes Brothers, composed of Jean-Luc and Pierre, are the most influential European filmmakers of the last 20 years. Their social-realist handheld camera style has become a sort of cliché for the Euro arthouse world, but why complain that the developers of a certain style of filmmaking cannot continue making such films? If their last effort, 2016’s “The Unknown Girl,” felt a little off, “Young Ahmed” is no doubt a unique film in their cinematic oeuvre because it tackles a controversial character that feels relevant to 21st Century realities. A film filled with tense moments that very much feels organic and attuned to the rest of their filmography, “Young Ahmed” caused a stir in its native France upon its release, as it deals with a Belgian teen, embracing an extremist interpretation of the Quran, who concocts a plot to kill his teacher. However, don’t be fooled by the political biases of some; this is top-notch work from the Dardennes, filled with their usual birds-eye-view camerawork, solid acting from nonprofessionals, and a searing screenplay that builds up the tension with every scene.
9. ‘Sound of Metal’ (Darius Marder)
Riz Ahmed is Ruben, a metal drummer whose hearing is rapidly deteriorating to oblivion in Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal.” Marder directed and co-wrote “Sound of Metal” with Abraham Marder, based on a story by Derek Cianfrance (director of “Blue Valentine”). Through tone and sound, they create a world where the viewer is immersed inside Ruben’s head, focusing on the ranges of sounds he hears (and doesn’t). Meanwhile, the acting Ahmed does here is silent and mainly in ASL. His moments range from quiet to high, extreme levels of acting — he deserves an Oscar nomination. Besides the acting, Maria Carolina and Santana Caraballo-Gramcko’s sound design is the other shining achievement. The whole film is beaded around sound and performance, but the way Santana and Caraballo-Gramcko sound edit and mix everything actually puts you in Ruben’s headspace for much of the film. You hear what he hears and feel what he feels. Those moments of realization aid in the experience. Emotion is built with that choice, and it all ends with a stunning final shot filled with the kind of subversion lacking in modern American cinema.
10. ‘The Assistant’ (Kitty Green)
You never see Harvey Weinstein in director Kitty Green’s “The Assistant.” His barking orders can be heard through closed doors and phone conversations, but that’s the only glimpse you get. He’s not even mentioned by name. However, his presence is all over Green’s film, a fascinating film that takes place over 24 hours in the life of a woman working as Weinstein’s office assistant. To my knowledge, this is the first feature-length, or television, film to try and tell the Weinstein story. With her background in documentaries (“Casting JonBenet”), this is also Green’s first narrative feature and, to prepare to shoot the Weinstein world, she interviewed people who conversed with him at studios and agencies. The work paid off as “The Assistant,” a minimalist and stripped-down narrative, means to build an incredibly realistic and familiar workplace. Jane (Julia Garner, excellent in the restraint she brings to her character) wakes up early every morning to get to the office; her duties for the boss are always piled up to the top: she schedules hotel appointments, cleans revolting stains off her boss’ casting couch and acts as a shield between him and his frustrated wife. When Jane finally does decide to visit HR, the rep, played by a snarky Matthew Macfadyen, brushes her off, telling her to just stick to her duties. Garner perfectly captures, with her indelibly expressive eyes, the agony deeply bottled-up inside Jane.
11. ‘Promising Young Woman’ (Emerald Fennell)
Emerald Fennell’s debut feature, “Promising Young Woman” plays like a feminist “Death Wish.” This thought-provoking movie has had its fair share of hatred directed towards it and all the better for it (a sure sign of a movie worth seeking). Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie a barista and med-school dropout, haunted by her best friend’s dorm-room rape and ensuing suicide. Cassie spends her evenings, however, in clubs and bars, exacting revenge on any man who dares go over the line with her. However, as she hops from one brutal encounter to the next, details emerge about her best friend’s death, inspiring Cassie to exact revenge on every single person that took part in the rape. Fennell, who directed the second season of “Killing Eve,” shows some real skill in her stylish, neon-infused filmmaking. Although none-too-subtle in execution, “Promising Young Woman” is perversely heroic, a scathing indictment of male cruelty that doesn’t mind being over-the-top. Mulligan delivers another great performance as a woman unafraid to cross the line, even when it means compromising her own moral compass. The biblical saying an eye for eye is used here to the nth degree here.
12. ‘Bacurau‘ (Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Juliano Dornelles)
This Cannes Jury Prize winner, which was directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, is a perplexing mix of magical surrealism and grindhouse. The film catches many off-guard in its first 20 minutes before it transports audiences into a cinematic adventure like no other. On its surface, the film is a thriller, but one filled with indelible artistry and breathtaking cinematic luxury. Set “a few years from now” in the imagined Brazilian town of Bacurau, the first act sets up a place so unknown that the locals can’t even seem to pinpoint it on a map when trying to teach local kids where they come from. A filmmaker decides to travel to the village to make a documentary, and, as days go by, he begins to discover that the locals are not exactly what they appear to be, as they hide some truly dangerous secrets. “Bacurau” hooks the audience the same way grindhouse fare does, such as “I Spit in Your Grave” and “Hostel.” But, of course, the filmmaking in “Bacurau” is what allows the film to transcend over its schlocky competition. It sings with blossoming camerawork and the kind of spiritual elegance not found in many midnight movies.
13. ‘Pieces of a Woman’ (Kornél Mundruczó)
For 128 minutes, Vanessa Kirby has you hooked to her every move in Kornel Mundruczo’s “Pieces of a Woman.” As Martha, a high-powered executive who loses her child during a harrowing home birth, Kirby mesmerizes by showcasing the human frailty and devastation that happens when tragedy comes knocking at her door. Her acting tour-de-force reminded me of Gena Rowlands’ masterful work in John Cassavetes’ 1974 classic, “Woman Under the Influence.” Shot in one long 23-minute continuous take, the opening scene is a harrowing one to watch and sets up the stakes for the rest of the film, which flows magnificently well thanks to Mundruczo firm grasp of his narrative — his work here is a directorial high-wire act of the highest order. “Pieces of a Woman” inhabits the psyche of Martha, her withdrawal from the world, her fury, culpability, the incapacity to deal with a grief so immense that it affects anyone who comes in close contact with her. lt all amounts to a cathartic decision at the film’s climax, a final act of deep humanism that feels both right and as a result of the slow culmination of everything that came before it. Kirby tackles the role in ways that, despite some familiar stretches in the screenplay, feel fresh, innovative, and damn-near transcendent. I haven’t seen a better performance this year.
14. David Byrne’s American Utopia (Spike Lee)
I was instantly hooked on Spike Lee’s concert documentary “American Utopia.” I had already seen the film three times before it made its October debut on HBO. And I’m not even a big fan of David Byrne or his former band The Talking Heads. Maybe it’s because we live in such tumultuous times, where our spirits need to be lifted by art, music, visual content etc. It’s been a rough year, to say the least, and “David Byrne’s American Utopia” is being released at the perfect time. This visual memento of the acclaimed Broadway show by Byrne, the former frontman of The Talking Heads, is a highly spirited recording of its run at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in New York City. In it, Byrne is joined by an ensemble of 11 musicians, singers, and dancers from around the world, performing a mixture of classics and new songs. Lee shoots the whole thing in such inventively exciting ways, and Byrne, a consummate showman, hasn’t been this hypnotic a stage presence since the great Jonathan Demme released the marvelous Talking Head doc “Stop Making Sense” back in 1984.
15) ‘Palm Springs‘ (Max Barbakow)
Here’s a “Groundhog Day”-Esque comedy starring Andy Samberg. Despite retreading the familiar time-loop trope, this is an incredibly entertaining movie — probably the funniest one I saw all year. Samberg and Cristina Milioti are forced to continuously relive a day in their life at a friend’s wedding. It’s better than it sounds. Director Max Barbakow and screenwriter Andy Siara found new and original ways to make us laugh with this usually tiresome narrative gimmick. It was also a sweetly touching movie thanks to Samberg and Milloti’s surprisingly humane chemistry. One doesn’t think of Samberg as a typical leading man in the rom-com genre, but he’s found the perfect partner here in Milioti — who played Leonardo DiCaprio’s first wife in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Siara’s inventive screenplay turns the time-loop genre over its head, refusing to adhere, in the conventional sense of the term, to any of the tropes that usually come with it. Long-term relationships are dissected here with a keen eye for detail, ditto Siara’s obsession with the meaningless of life, which is seen as this madly anarchic and dementedly inescapable thing.
Runners-Up:
Sean Durkin’s ‘The Nest,’ Eugene Kotlyarenko’s ‘Spree,’ David Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor,’ Florian Zeller’s ‘The Father,’ Rob Savages’s ‘Host’, Yaron Zilberman’s ‘Incitement’, Steve McQueen’s ‘Mangrove,’ Antonio Campos’ ‘The Devil All the Time,’ Hao Wu and Weixi Chen’s ’76 Days’